Up until now, there has been widely used a conventional analyzer in the field of clinical examination, biochemical examination, and general experiment and research to analyze an ingredient in a liquid specimen reacted with a reagent which is arranged beforehand, the liquid specimen exemplified by a blood and a urine. Recently, the conventional analyzer of this kind has been constructed to be automatically operated so that a series of processes, that is, a process of absorbing and shifting the liquid specimen, a process of mixing the liquid specimen with the reagent, a process of measuring and analyzing the liquid specimen, a process of displaying a result of the analysis, and a process of recording the result, are automatically conducted with the simple placement of the liquid specimen, or a sample. This type of analyzer is generally adapted to shift the liquid specimen with a pressure, i.e., a positive pressure or a negative pressure generated by a pump. Meanwhile, there has also been proposed another conventional analyzer for analyzing a specimen, having a disc adapted to shift the specimen and the reagent by applying a centrifugal force generated by a rotation of the disc. This type of conventional analyzer utilizes a focusing technology and a tracking technology used in the optical disc device exemplified by a CD-ROM (compact disc read only memory) device are applied to the analyzer (see patent document 1). The analyzer for analyzing a liquid specimen with the disc shape is referred to as a disc analyzer.
FIG. 12 is a schematic view showing an example of the above-mentioned analyzer, where FIG. 12(a) is a cross sectional view and FIG. 12(b) is a perspective view. The same constitutional elements in these drawings will bear the same reference numerals and legends. As shown in the drawings, the device 200 has an appearance substantially the same as the conventional optical disc, that is, a disc having a center hole 203 formed at the center of the disc, the disc having four specimen inlet ports 201 formed to be positioned circumferentially around the center hole 203. The specimen inlet ports 201 are respectively communicated with four channels 202 formed in the above-mentioned disc. Each of the four channels 202 is formed radially from the center of the disc to the circumference and blocked at one end, and adapted to have a reagent for analyzing held in the middle thereof. The upper side of each of the channels 202 is permeable to light so that the reaction between the liquid specimen and the reagent in the channels can be optically measured. The method of analysis using this analyzer will now be described hereinafter. Firstly, a liquid specimen, such as a blood and a urine, is injected in the device 200 from the specimen inlet ports 201. The device 200 is then rotated by a rotation device, which results in the fact that the injected liquid specimen is urged, by the generated centrifugal force, to be shifted to the circumference from the center through the channels 202, with the liquid specimen being reacted with the liquid reagent. The ingredient analysis of the specimen is then conducted by means of detecting the liquid specimen or measuring the reaction with the above-mentioned focusing technology and the tracking technology. In this example, the specimen is shifted by the centrifugal force. However, the specimen may be shifted by capillary force, a siphon effect, and so on.
The analysis of the liquid specimen is required to be conducted with a process of diluting the liquid specimen, a process of introducing the reagent to the liquid specimen, a process of reacting the liquid specimen with the reagent, and a process of removing a reagent unreacted with the liquid specimen. In order for the processes to be conducted, a plurality of chambers are formed in the rotation device, where the processes are respectively conducted in the chambers. The chambers are formed to be communicated with each other through channels.
The liquid specimen is required to be evenly mixed in the above-mentioned processes. For example, the liquid specimen and a solvent are required to be evenly mixed in the process of diluting the liquid specimen. The liquid specimen and the reagent are required to be evenly mixed in the process of reacting.
In order to achieve a homogeneous mixture of the liquid material, a turbulent flow is required to be caused by the liquid material. As a method of generating the turbulent flow, a device such as a stirrer and VORTEX (trademark) is well known. In the method of using the stirrer, the turbulent flow is generated in such a way that a magnetically-charged stirrer bar is inserted in a container filled with materials to be mixed, and the stirrer bar is magnetically driven to be rotated by a magnet positioned outside of the container. In the method of using VORTEX (trademark), the turbulent flow is generated in such a way that the materials to be mixed are poured into a container such as a test tube, and then the bottom of the container is pressed to VORTEX (trademark) to ensure that the container is vibrated.
The analyzer which is required to have the function of rotating the disc has, however, such a problem that the apparatus becomes huge in size and complicated in constitution in the case that the apparatus has an additional function similar to the function of the above-mentioned stirrer or VORTEX (trademark).
Therefore, the method of mixing the liquids utilizing not the functions of the stirrer and VORTEX (trademark) but the shapes of the channels is under review. For example, there has been developed a device for mixing liquids having a winding channel as disclosed in patent document 2. The constitution of the device makes it possible to lengthen the traveling distance of the liquid. This leads to the fact that the device can lengthen the time to shift the liquid, which results in the mixed liquid or the mixture sufficiently diffused.    Patent document 1: International Publication Pamphlet No. 00/026677    Patent document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,662